The novel has three important set tings: the Globe theater, Normal Prep School, and Barstow, a town of about thirty thousand people. The Globe is an old movie house that once featured uniformed ushers and lavish motion pictures; as was the case with many such theaters, business suffered when motion pictures began to be broadcast on television, and the theater's owner Mr. Zarbor has taken to presenting live stage shows to draw audiences.

Paying most of the expenses out of his own pocket, Mr. Zarbor puts on a free magic show for poor children each Halloween. An immigrant from Hungary, he sympathizes with John Paul, who accompanied his parents when they migrated from Canada in order to find economic opportunity they thought was being denied to them in their home country because they spoke French. He employs John Paul as an usher, and then makes John Paul the leader...